Kneeling in protest is about civil rights, not disrespecting the military

November 29, 2017

That's it! I can no longer sit quietly by and let these diatribes against our First Amendment continue unchallenged. First of all, there is no directive in the official playing rules of the NFL to stand for the national anthem. In fact, they didn't begin the practice of standing until 2009 and in 2016 the NFL made it clear that players were not required to stand. Second, the US Flag Code does not mention the anthem at all. I am a 69 year old woman with two mixed-race grandchildren and I would kneel down next to those players if I could. Their kneeling has nothing to do with disrespecting our military. It is about civil rights. Ever since slavery ended African Americans have had to protest their way to equality. It has been a long, hard battle, here we are 152 years later and my grandsons and son-in-law are still stopped for DWB (driving while black). They have to always be cautious and aware of the racism that still exists in our country. Thank you to those who kneel in protest. I hope that it will help to shame the nation into an effort to change. Why are we still having to do this in 2017? We have a bigoted, racist, homophobic misogynist for a president who is leading us in the wrong direction.

God help us all!

P.S. If you are at all interested in reading the Constitution of the United States of America, you might want to check out Amendments 13 and 14.